Gloria has lived in North Camden her whole life. In 2009, she met Elise and Jess from the NJ Tree Foundation. “I want trees for my block!” Gloria said. Elise handed her a stack of Resident Tree Agreements and explained that Gloria and her neighbors were eligible for free trees so long as they would a) sign for the tree, b) care for the tree for a minimum of 2 years, and c) help plant the tree. Within a day, Gloria collected signatures for 11 street trees to be planted on her block. Wow! What a go-getter!!

In May of 2009, Gloria and her neighbors joined forces with over 75 volunteers to dig holes, plant trees and lay mulch at their tree planting event. Gloria, who is retired, was seen throughout the day with a shovel and a smile. When she needed a break, she would load cold waters into her vehicle and deliver them to volunteers. At one point (and we didn’t get to see how this happened), she ran over a shovel and sent it flying into the air. It fell down onto her car, which was kept in supreme condition, and left a dent! When Jess ran over to see if Gloria was okay, she explained “I’m too excited over these beautiful trees to care that there’s a dent in my car. ”

The tree planting was a success! In just 3 hours, we planted 45 total trees in Gloria’s neighborhood (along her block and two surrounding streets)! This was Jess’s first tree planting on her own, and to this day she still says it was her most memorable.

Gloria later called Jess to express her gratitude. These are the kind of messages a tree planter loves to receive! “I turned onto my street today, and it felt like a whole new block… People are stopping to compliment the trees…” Then, for the real kicker, she went on to say “These trees have restored a new life to my block. A life that was lost long ago, and a life I didn’t think would come back. Thank you so much.”

Gloria went on to receive the Campbell Soup Company’s Unsung Hero Award at their Annual Networking Breakfast in 2010 for her volunteer work with the NJ Tree Foundation. She can be seen often at community meetings, clean ups, tree plantings, and other neighborhood events — or, just outside, sweeping up or sitting under her trees. Gloria, we thank you sincerely for all you do to make Camden a better place. People like you inspire us everyday.

Our Celebrate Arbor Day Program is 15 years old! Since 1999, the NJ Tree Foundation has partnered with hundreds of volunteer groups to plant over 160,000 trees on public lands across the state! We want to make this year the biggest tree planting event ever! We have 15,000 baby trees (1 – 2′ tall) waiting to be planted by volunteers.

Guidelines: The New Jersey Tree Foundation is offering free two-year-old trees (1’ – 2’ tall) to celebrate Arbor Day 2013 in New Jersey. A variety of evergreen and deciduous trees will be available. Schools, local governments, tree groups, non-profit organizations, scout groups, and any volunteer organization may apply for the free trees. All planting must occur on public lands, be done by volunteers and maintained for two years.

The goals of this project are to:

Use volunteers to plant trees on public lands to Celebrate Arbor Day 2013!; and

Develop partnerships with diverse groups for information and resource sharing, and future projects.

There are many ways the trees can be used to beautify your neighborhood. Trees can be planted in a vacant lot to create an urban forest, planted as a windbreak for a community garden or at a school, planted in a nursery, or trees can be planted randomly throughout a park or cemetery.

It is important to note the following conditions mandated by the New Jersey Tree Foundation:

NEW: Each species comes in a pack of 25 trees. You must order in increments of 25 trees.

Trees may be planted only on public land (parks, school grounds, cemeteries, public golf courses, etc.)

Trees will be available in late April 2013, and must be planted on/near Arbor Day (April 26, 2013);

All groups must maintain trees for a minimum of two years after the trees are received: Providing water, mulch, weeding and pruning;

Groups may NOT sell or give away trees;

All projects must be done by volunteers;

All groups must complete and send an annual reportform to the New Jersey Tree Foundation by the required date;

In addition to the above requirements, the New Jersey Tree Foundation requires that each NEW group send at least one member to a Tree Planting Event Training Session held in March 2013. This is a mandatory requirement. Training Schedule

Give the gift that will last over 100 years! Plant a tree with the New Jersey Tree Foundation.

In 2012, the NJ Tree Foundation planted 1,457 large shade trees in Camden, Newark and other NJ cities. Our volunteers planted 12,650 tree saplings across the state to celebrate Arbor Day 2012! You can be a part of greening New Jersey by making an end-of-year donation to support our work.

In 2013, requests for trees will be greater than ever before. After Hurricane Sandy, 113,000 trees were removed by our utility companies. It is estimated that 4 times that number of trees were damaged and/or removed from personal property and NJ parks and forests.

Go to a baseball game and support the NJ Tree Foundation! Friday, August 24, 2012 @ 6:30pm it’s the Newark Bears Vs. Lincoln Saltdogs! Purchase your tickets through this link and enter TREE in the Special Offer Code box. $4.00 from each ticket will help plant trees in Newark. See you there!

The NJ Tree Foundation and the NJ Community Forestry Program will celebrate Arbor Day 2012 in Haddon Township, NJ. We are planting 150 large shade trees to beautify the streets of Haddon Township! Please join us!

The New Jersey Envirothon competition is a one-day event that takes place near the end of the school year. Teams are tested on environmental topics through hands-on interactive problem-solving at five testing stations. Test questions may cover any information in the study guide and suggested resource materials or web links. The contest consists of hands-on questions along with some true/false, multiple choice and fill-in-the-blanks. Students have 30 minutes at each station. Team presentations last 10 minutes. The team that best demonstrates a comprehensive understanding of natural resources, as well as teamwork and communication skills, moves on to represent New Jersey in the Canon Envirothon competition which is North America’s Largest High School Environmental Education Competition. This multi-day event further tests the team’s understanding of the environment and involves teams from all regions of the United Statesand Canada.

If you are interested in volunteering time to staff the Forestry testing station, please contact Bill Brash at: forester82@aol.com

The NJ Tree Foundation’s Green Streets tree planting crew is wrapping up the fall 2011 season by planting 20 trees in Dumont, NJ! This fall, the Crew planted over 350 large shade trees in seven NJ towns. All of the trees were paid for via contract work. Thank you folks for hiring the NJ tree Foundation to plant trees!